Projekt SDI4Apps

The SmartAgriHubs Open Call for proposals has as a key objective to
expand the existing SmartAgriHubs community network with additional
stakeholders and promoting the realisation of new innovation
experiments. The collaboration with new and existing Digital Innovation
Hubs (DIHs) and Competence Centres (CCs) shall result in a joint effort
of an active community that creates knowledge and practical experience
that will facilitate and disseminate digital innovation in the agri-food
domain.

SmartAgriHubs supports this with its available team, knowledge and tools:;

The existing DIH network in SmartAgriHubs offers collaboration with
additional and new Digital Innovation Hubs to facilitate experience
exchange

The network of Competence Centres is helping to identify the most
appropriate technology related expertise required for a successful
realisation of an innovation experiment

Community of SMEs, startups and scaleups, helping to find promising tech suppliers, partners as well as reference end-users

Flagship Innovation Experiments from SmartAgriHubs and use cases
from IoF2020 serving as show cases for digitisation and innovation in
the agri-food domains and

Excellent, well-equipped support team present in most European regions, familiar with local and sector specific challenges.

Facilitated by an Open Call, SmartAgriHubs will complement and
connect existing and upcoming programmes that are supporting innovation
and funding stakeholders (i.e. from both public and private sources) in
the agri-food community.

Subsequently, these activities shall generate a critical mass of
digital innovation experiments, where stakeholders share experiences
gained and build an international community of regional hubs (DIHs) and
knowledge transfer centres (CCs) that will result in a sustainable
European network also helping to close the gap between research,
innovation and business development.

The current COVID-19 crisis and its impact on the agri-food economy
has pushed the SmartAgriHubs team to redesign the Open Call approach to
give response to the needs of the sector in these critical times. In
accordance to the current COVID-19 related situation and the importance
of the food system’s resilience, it is foreseen to use a maximum of
900,000€ funding for two individual open calls as an immediate RESPOND
to the crisis. This shall be followed later by the RESTART and EXPAND
open calls that will address the agri-food economy on the medium term..
SmartAgriHubs will assign up to 5,000,000€ funding to the RESTART and
EXPAND open calls, addressing Digital Innovation Hubs that are
supporting diverse stakeholders in the agri-food economy and
specifically SMEs as drivers for digital innovation.

Figure 1: Overall timing of the planned open calls by SmartAgriHubs.

RESPOND to the CORONA COVID-19 Crisis

Can digital innovation help mitigate the consequences of COVID-19?
SmartAgriHubs RESPOND open call focuses on the organisation and
realisation of hackathon type of activities and the proposal of
immediate technological solutions that will RESPOND to the effects of
the COVID-19 crisis, and use potential opportunities to fight against
the pandemic.

Figure 2: Timing for the RESPOND Open Call.

The RESPOND Open Call is open between the 12th of May and 3rd of June
2020. If you want to participate in this open call, there are two
possibilities, either for DIHs or SMEs:

For Digital Innovation Hubs – RESPOND to COVID-19 Open CallProposals must include at least one DIH, realising hackathon type of activities. SmartAgriHubs considers that proposals requesting a contribution from 10,000 to 30,000 Euro would allow to support the realisation of activities appropriately.

For Small and Medium Enterprises, including Startups – RESPOND2: SAH2SME Open Call Proposals are submitted by SMEs/Startups aiming at direct realisation of digital innovations mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the agri-food sector. SmartAgriHubs considers that proposals requesting a contribution from 30,000 to 50,000 Euro would allow to support the realisation of activities appropriately.

RESTART the Economy around Food Systems

SmartAgriHubs will realise a focused open call for hackathon type of
activities that will RESTART the economy around the agri-food related
sectors and affected food systems.

The funding conditions to RESTART the Economy around Food Systems
will be published in due time, as this open call is planned to be
launched by July 2020.

EXPAND the Network

The major amount of funding will be assigned to the implementation of
programmes by DIHs to support the realisation of Innovation
Experiments. This shall specifically contribute to the expansion of the
network of DIHs and CCs as well as making available new knowledge and
results from digital innovation activities.

The funding conditions to EXPAND the Network will be published in due
time, as this open call is planned to be launched by July 2020.